Teaching Highlights

We're still searching for a teacher at Colegio Navarrete (of which St. Mary's Preschool is a part); however, it was a good week for me at the Preschool!

I did two activities that were a hit so I thought I'd share them. Plus, if you've been reading since school started, you probably remember that little 3 year old boy who for a few weeks cried every time he saw me...more about him in a moment.

The two hits were
1) Sense of taste tasting
2) Science: hard boiled v. raw eggs

We started the year's curriculum with the "At School" theme in which we learned all about school, related vocab, the park, and some simple verbs that go along with all that. We have now moved into the 2nd theme, "All About Us" in which we are learning names of body parts, feelings, taste, family - that sort of stuff.

So for my 4 year olds I did a really cool activity teaching them about taste and the fact that our tongues detect 4 tastes - salty, bitter, sour and sweet. I brought in seasoned chips, orange peel, chocolates wrapped in gold foil (like coins) and limes. I put some chips on 2 plates (while the children were drooling, but careful not to take anything yet), I very dramatically peeled pieces of the orange peel onto the 2 plates, I had a small cutting board and knife and I carefully cut the limes in half and put them onto the 2 plates, and then I pulled out the "gold coins" (which they already knew were filled with chocolate) and put them on the 2 plates.

By now those 10 little faces were so anxious, that they were listening to every word I said. And then we began to taste each item, one by one, with me describing salty, bitter, sour and sweet. It was great. They loved it. And I loved it.

The second activity that went really well was with my 5 year olds and we did it yesterday. I called it a Science activity and showed them the difference between hard boiled and raw eggs. (Did you know you can spin an egg and it will quickly tell you if it is hard boiled or raw?)

I brought in a dozen raw eggs and 6 hard boiled eggs. I pulled out one raw and one hard boiled and spun them on the table that all the children were sitting around. One spins fast and one spins slow. And right off the bat the raw one hit the floor and broke on the tile. That was funny. No problem. I got out another raw one and spun it. By now the children were sorta confused and I'm not sure they realized that some of the eggs were cooked and they would not break. So...I took one that was hard boiled (they spin faster!) and cracked it on the table...I could see them wondering why I was going to break another egg onto the floor...hahahaha...if you could have seen their faces when they saw it was hard boiled! We went through this several times.

And then I poked a hole in each end of a raw egg and blew the contents into a cup. You know - the way we did it around Easter to make hollowed eggs to decorate. THEY WERE SCREAMING AND LAUGHING SO HARD - especially when the yolk broke through! They could not believe all of the egg could come out of that little hole. I let a couple of them try blowing an egg and we ended up with 3 more broken eggs on the floor. They loved it. And I loved it.

And the 3 year old cry baby? We had a big Columbus Day celebration yesterday which included a movie and popcorn served by our Principal, and her staff, to the students and the teachers. We sat on the floor in the music room to watch the movie and it was about half-way through the movie that I realized the little one next to me that was now leaning up against me was the cry baby. And I gave him a spontaneous hug. He looked up at me with the biggest smile, stayed still, and kept eating popcorn and watching the movie. Can you believe that?!

CORRECTION: Sat night...I'm making dinner...I inadvertently discover that is RAW eggs that spin faster...